Returning to Work

How have 8 weeks gone by already?! Everything speeds up once you have kids but I think maternity leave goes even faster! I tried to make the most of if and get things done at the house while I was home, which kept me from ever feeling stir crazy or bored out of my mind. Now that my to-do list is significantly smaller, I will be able to come home and enjoy baby snuggles and family time.

Here are a few of the things I did to take advantage of my time at home:

We went on lots of walks for the first 6 weeks, then upgraded to runs after the doctor gave us the all-clear.

We took lots of family trips! 

I sewed a bunch of draw string bags of various sizes/fabrics I'm sure we'll find a purpose for them

I sewed a few travel diaper/wipes carriers for when the whole diaper bag isn't needed.

I sewed a few more to give as gifts to the new dads on Matt's soccer team ☺️

I made a height ruler to put on the wall and filled in Wyatt and Alexis' heights for the last two years. Thank goodness I remembered to save those tidbits in a note on my phone!

And of course... We had lots and lots of play time and snuggles!

Looking back at my 8 weeks of maternity leave I think it's crazy how different every woman's experience is. Some women go nuts being home alone, some women can't emotionally handle leaving their baby after three straight months of them being by their side, some women can't wait to get back to work and some quit working all together. With such an array of experiences and no promise of which kind of emotions and feelings I'd have, I decided from the beginning that I would take my first 6 weeks of leave that the Army gives then decide around week 4 how much of my personal leave I would take in addition. I settled on two extra weeks. Mainly because we still have family trips planned this summer that I need leave for and I wanted a few extra days stored up just in case I needed to stay home to take care of Warren for whatever reason. 8 weeks worked out, but next time I think I would probably stretch it to 9 possibly 10 weeks. After Warren was 6 weeks old he was able to sleep for longer stretches at night and at 7.5 weeks we were able to move him from our room, into the nursery (we're so lucky that he likes to sleep, I know) but it would have been nice to have another week or so to hash out his newly forming sleeping and eating habits so that we had a nice routine in place when I started working.
We've got the bedtime routine down, but we're still working on tracking when Warren likes to nap during the day, because so far he doesn't seem to know himself! One day he'll nap all morning and the next he'll be so attentive and curous until 12 or 1! So my recommendation to all new moms- save up as much leave as you can and try, if at all possible, to stay home with your little for 8-10 weeks. That seems to be in the sweet spot for most women I've talked to. 6 seems to be too short and I have a couple friends that took off 12 weeks and they said by week 11 they were ready to interact with humans that didn't spit up on them again!
We're also super fortunate because Matt has an awesome job that allows him to work from home when necessary and my little sister arranged her college classes in a way that we don't have to send Warren to day care. I'm all about kids getting socialization early on and learning to interact with peers, but when they're this little it is so reassuring to know that he's at home, safe, and learning/exploring with family.
Now that I'm back at work I also am adjusting to pumping at work and trying to map out how many bottles to leave in the fridge for the day. Kudos to all you ladies who pump at work- I can't imagine how difficult it would be if I didn't have my own office. 

So far I've been able to pump 10-11 ounces in the morning before work (Warren sleeping through the night makes that possible!), put it in three 3-4oz bottles and make it home in time to feed him without needing to thaw any frozen milk. I've also been bringing home about 18 ounces of bm each day from my two work pumping sessions! If I keep it up, I'm pretty sure our deep freezer will be full in a month or two!

All of that being said, work and our transition are going well but I would much rather be at home, hanging out with this cutie!!

Who, by the way, has his 2 month well baby visit next week, so we'll update you on his giant growth and general awesomeness then :)